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COBOURG, Ont. — Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak's point about creating a better environment for manufacturing jobs in the province, made at a plastics plant in Cobourg last week, was drilled home the hard way when the plastics company announced 30 layoffs the next day, QMI Agency has learned.

Horizon Plastics laid off about 30 workers at the Cobourg plant, where Hudak visited to talk about his program to create 100,000 primarily blue-collar jobs.

At a news conference there, Hudak was critical of the Liberals' job creation plan which he says would keep white-collar workers and not manufacturing workers.

Horizon Plastics received almost $2 million in government funding in 2011 to introduce new technology, supporting existing jobs, and to create more jobs.

Local Liberal candidate Lou Rinaldi called the layoffs “unfotunate” but that the company has been around for a long time and experiences spikes in employment and production.

The money provided by his government a few years ago was for technology to help the company remain competitive, he added.

"It's a sad day," said incumbent MPP and Tory candidate Rob Milligan. “More people out of work and more people struggling to put food on the table.”